Abstract
In this paper I interpret Montaigne’s essay, “On Educating Children”, as a pedagogical text through its performance of a distinct epistolary function, one that addresses the letter-recipient for the purpose of shaping the ideas, actions, and beliefs of that individual. At the same time, I also read “On Educating Children” within the context of the wider project of Montaigne’s Essays, which, as I suggest, is an ethical-aesthetic project of self-fashioning and self-cultivation. The net result is an interpretation of teaching as an ethical-aesthetic practice of the self, one that is in concert with the interpretation of Montaigne’s writing of the Essays as a similar practice of the self. In order to build this case, I employ Michel Foucault’s fourfold schema of ethical subjectivity, mapping that schema onto “On Educating Children”, so as to reveal a unique pedagogy of self-formation—a pedagogy that works as much upon the self of the teacher as it does the self of the student.
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Notes
Among recent philosophers of education, Charles Bingham has suggested that philosophers of self-fashioning “deserve to be considered philosophers of education par excellence” because rather than asserting the superiority of either nature, culture, or knowledge, in determining the goal of education, such self-fashioners “offer ways that one might negotiate nature, culture, and knowledge in order to enhance the living of one’s life”. (See, Bingham 2005, p. 2).
See, Foucault (1997a, p. 230).
In addition to “On Educating Children”, there are two other essays that take the epistolary form. The first is a very brief note to a Madame de Grammont, Countess of Guiche, designed to introduce her to the poetry of Montaigne’s dear friend, Etienne de La Boëtie (see, Montaigne 1991g, pp. 220–221). The second letter, addressed to a Madame d’ Etissac, is a much lengthier entry which finds Montaigne discussing the bout of melancholy that brought him to the writing of the Essays. (See, Montaigne 1991h, pp. 432–452).
Although writing in English, La Charite usually refers to the original French editions of the Essays to parse the nuances of Montaigne’s use of terms. For the purposes of cross referencing, I have relied on a French edition of Book I (See, de Montaigne 2002).
Screech translates l’entendement as “mind” in the English edition.
I have selected the term ‘things’ (choses) to cover a variety of similar terms which, according to David T. Hansen, is meant to indicate for Montaigne simply “the phenomenon of living” (Hansen 2002, p. 128). Hansen says that Montaigne’s use of the term choses covers “thoughts, emotions, intuitions, and actions” (p. 128). My reading differs slightly from Hansen’s in that I take Montaigne to mean strictly, actions and deeds, rather than including subjective mental states.
Michael J. Hall offers a rich discussion of Montaigne’s use of historical sources in the Essays (See, Hall 1997).
John O’Brien provides an analysis of this tension between implementation and differentiation in Montaigne (See, O’Brien 2005).
Descartes’ 3rd rule for the proper use of the mind is to steer clear of studying “too closely” what others have thought: “We ought to read the ancients, for it is of great advantage to be able to make use of the labours of so many men…But at the same time there is considerable danger that if we study these works too closely traces of their errors will infect us and cling to us against our will and despite our precautions” (See, Descartes 1985, p. 13).
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Acknowledgments
I am grateful to the Dean of the Panuska College of Professional Studies at the University of Scranton for granting release time to complete this manuscript. I am also grateful to David Kennedy, Maughn Gregory, and Olivier Michaud of Montclair State University, for inviting me to take part in their Montaigne study group and to share some of the ideas developed here. I wish to thank Gert Biesta and two anonymous reviewers for their critical and encouraging advice on how to make some much needed improvements to the manuscript. Finally, I owe a debt of gratitude to Anne De Marzio for her careful reading of earlier drafts.
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De Marzio, D.M. The Pedagogy of Self-Fashioning: A Foucaultian Study of Montaigne’s “On Educating Children”. Stud Philos Educ 31, 387–405 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-011-9282-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-011-9282-3